Righthaven has reportedly appealed a court ruling from last fall, which deemed the use of 8 sentences of one of its clients’ 30-sentence article "fair use". The ruling had temporarily led Righthaven to reconsider its strategy, and focus on full copies of articles.
As we looked at yesterday, it’s entirely possible that a ruling will come down on the side of fair use in some of these cases as well. According to the Las Vegas Sun (via Mike Masnick):
The appeal comes as Righthaven faces a second potential dismissal by another federal judge involving an entire Review-Journal story that was posted on the website of the Center for Intercultural Organizing in Portland, Ore.
The appeal also comes as four Righthaven defendants — two represented by attorneys for the online free speech group the Electronic Frontier Foundation — press counterclaims against Righthaven and Review-Journal owner Stephens Media LLC.
Righthaven has received a great deal of criticism as a company with a business model based on suing publishers and bloggers on behalf of newspaper clients like the Las Vegas Review-Journal, bringing lots of fair use questions into the forefront.
For more context and background on this, read our articles "Fair Use Controversy: The Gift That Keeps On Giving," "Testing the Fair Use Balance" and "Could "Full Article-Copying Be Ruled as Fair Use?"
